Prosecutors in R. Kelly case use marriage to Aaliyah to prove singer needs to remain behind bars

Sep 3, 2019

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In a new court filing, prosecutors in the R. Kelly case are arguing that his marriage to a then 15-year-old Aaliyah is proof that the singer can’t be trusted around kids and has to continue to be contained behind bars.

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“Defendant even married a 15-year-old girl when he was 27 years old,” federal prosecutors said in newly filed court papers in the Eastern District of Illinois, The NY Daily News reports.

“The government produced in discovery to the defendant the official marriage application, marriage certificate, and annulment records for this marriage. Far from being a one-time mistake, defendant’s sexual abuse of minors was intentional and prolific,” they say.

Kelly is locked up at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Downtown Chicago, pending his trial.

The embattled singer faces 18 counts in federal indictments on various sex crimes in Chicago and Brooklyn. He faces 195 years for the Chicago case alone.

But as Kelly’s team fights for his release, the prosecution is gathering evidence to prove their case with the secret marriage Aaliyah marriage to say that Kelly needs to remain behind bars.

“The extent of defendant’s sexual abuse of minor girls is staggering,” prosecutors argue. “The indictment in this district alone alleges five minor victims, and as proffered at the detention hearing, defendant sexually abused those girls hundreds of times before they turned 18 years old.”

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Meanwhile, Kelly’s two girlfriends, Joycelyn Savage, 23, and Azriel Clary, 21, are reportedly trying to raise the funds to hire Tom Mesereau, the attorney who got Michael Jackson acquitted in his 2005 child molestation trial.